‘Bucky F*cking Dent’: Glasgow Review

Dir/scr: David Duchovny. US. 2023. 109mins

A struggling author reluctantly spends time with his estranged, dying father in writer-director David Duchovny’s second feature, a gentle comedy-drama that never cuts very deeply. Based on the actor’s 2016 novel, Bucky F*cking Dent stars Logan Marshall-Green as the floundering son who realises that his Boston Red Sox-loving dad’s condition deteriorates whenever his baseball team loses, prompting him to concoct an elaborate scheme to convince his old man that the club is on an unprecedented winning streak.

A gentle comedy-drama that never cuts very deeply

Examining generational conflict and regret, this nostalgic period piece, which screens in Glasgow after premiering at Tribeca last year, has its charms, but the laidback tone ultimately makes the story feel inconsequential rather than well-observed. Duchovny, playing the cancer-stricken father, will add commercial value, and he is joined by Stephanie Beatriz, quite lovely in a crucial supporting role. Streaming and small-screen prospects seem most viable for this modest, bittersweet tale.

In the summer of 1978, Ted (Marshall-Green) believes he has a great novel in him, but after writing a dozen books, none of which has been published, has begun to lose hope. Finding out that his father Marty (Duchovny) has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, he begrudgingly pays a visit, even though they were never close. Because Marty has no one else — save for a compassionate nurse, Mariana (Beatriz) — Ted moves in, and discovers a book his dad has quietly been working on for years. 

Baseball fans will know that 1978 was a memorable year: the fierce rivals the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox duelled all season for first place in the standings, with only one able to move on to the playoffs. Ted’s father worships the Red Sox, who at that point had suffered decades of failure, while the hated Yankees had collected myriad World Series titles. Marty may be dying, but his mood brightens considerably whenever Boston wins. When the team loses, he grows frail and depressed. 

Initially, Ted has little affection for his father who, by his own admission, was a terrible dad and husband. But the more they get reacquainted — and the more that Ted secretly reads Marty’s book, which conveys a soulfulness he never knew his father possessed — the more Ted sympathises with his plight. Marshall-Green and Duchovny have an agreeably contentious rapport that eventually gives way to guarded sweetness, although Duchovny’s screenplay lacks the incisive humour or sharp insights into the characters’ long-simmering tensions that would give this familiar setup a spark.

Coming to care for Marty — and learning some of the extenuating circumstances that explain why his father was so withholding of affection — Ted recruits some of Marty’s oldest friends to play along with a hoax, tricking his dad into believing that the Red Sox (who are playing terribly) are actually far ahead of the Yankees in the standings. Granted, this ruse would be much more difficult in our modern, plugged-in world, but Bucky F*cking Dent chronicles the lengths Ted will go to fool his father, including doctoring the newspaper, sabotaging the television, and creating fake rainouts.

These moments of deception are potentially touching but, as a director, Duchovny (who previously helmed 2004’s House Of D) errs on the side of making the scheme so preposterous that it is not very believable, and therefore not so funny either. Duchovny’s approach is similar throughout the film, too easily going for the broad joke or the cliched observation.

Marshall-Green portrays Ted as a manchild who is depressed and ineffectual. (Bucky F*cking Dent suggests that the reason why he cannot sell a manuscript is that he has not lived enough to create something of substance.) The performance is earnest but undone by the way Duchovny narrowly conceives the character — Ted’s experience with his father is meant to give him greater depth, but that transformation never feels believable. Duchovny enjoys his role as the cantankerous, irreverent Marty, who wants to make amends but also knows that, because he is dying, he can be as outrageous as he wants. Unfortunately, the father’s journey to reconciliation with his son is underdeveloped, leading to a tearful revelation that has not earned the emotional catharsis it longs to achieve.

Beatriz gives the best performance, because hers is the most subtle. Savvy viewers will predict how Mariana factors into the plot, but the actress brings nuance and buried pain to a single woman whose job as a caregiver has almost succeeded in helping her forget own anguish. When Bucky F*cking Dent strains for feel-good sentiment, Beatriz goes for small moments of truthfulness. While Ted and Marty loudly engage in their family conflict, Mariana silently inhabits the background; the film’s real heart.